Sarah Montalbano

Sarah Palin was defeated by Democrat Mary Peltola on Wednesday in a special election to fill the late Don Young’s seat in the House. She lost by a margin of 3 percent amid Alaska’s first ranked-choice voting election. Ranked-choice voting is when voters get to select their second, third, and so on choices of candidates in a field, rather than choosing just one candidate. Though left-leaning publications like the New York Times have wasted no time in declaring “defeat for MAGA Republicans,” such a conclusion is premature. Palin’s failure to win four short months in Congress does not necessarily mean conservatism has been repudiated. It mostly reflects the warped mechanics and unintuitive strategies of ranked-choice voting.

The Alaska Republican Party no longer wants Lisa Murkowski. That's just fine by her. In a traditional one-person-one-vote system, Murkowski would be sweating bullets right about now. The Alaskan Republican Party has censured her and endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the state's Department of Administration. President Trump has also thrown his weight behind Tshibaka. Murkowski has repeatedly voted against the Republican Party and Alaskan interests on key issues. In any other situation, she would be losing her seat — and for good reason. Fortunately for Murkowski, this year will be the test of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting (RCV) system. The ballot measure, which passed narrowly in 2020, established a nonpartisan top-four primary and RCV for the general election.